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Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren to become Rice head coach

Tom FitzGerald| on December 5, 2017

Photo: Richard Vogel/AP

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Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren talks during a news conference in Los Angeles, Monday, Dec. 28, 2015. Stanford is scheduled to play Iowa in the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game on New Year's Day. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren talks during a news conference in Los Angeles, Monday, Dec. 28, 2015. Stanford is scheduled to play Iowa in the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game on New Year's

Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren to become Rice head coach

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In one of the biggest staff losses of David Shaw’s seven years at Stanford, associate head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren will be named head coach at Rice on Wednesday, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday.

Bloomgren will replace David Bailiff, who was fired Nov. 27 after 11 years at the school.

Bloomgren, 40, who was also Stanford’s offensive line coach, leaves multiple positions to fill on the Stanford staff. He has coached on the Farm for seven years. For the last few years, he has been Shaw’s right-hand man.

Bloomgren told The Chronicle last month that he had turned down about 10 college head-coaching offers and numerous NFL assistant offers while at Stanford. He previously spent four years with the New York Jets.

“For me, it’s always been: Don’t mess with happy,” he said in the interview. “I really feel like my next step is to be a head coach. I don’t feel any need to take an offensive-line job in the NFL for just a little bit more money. I don’t feel like that helps me toward my goal. I don’t feel like taking another college job as a coordinator helps me toward my goal.”

The Rice job would seem to be a perfect fit for him. Like Stanford, the Houston school is one of the nation’s top academic institutions. In football, though, the Owls have not had much success in recent years, aside from a Conference USA title in 2013. Bailiff’s record was 57-78. So expectations might not be as high as they would be at other schools.

Rice athletic director Joe Karlgaard, a Stanford grad who was an associate athletic director at Stanford before going to Rice, reportedly also considered Cardinal defensive coordinator Lance Anderson, among other candidates.